‘Far East Orlando’: How My Kid Got the Lead in ABC’s Asian-American Sitcom

Hudson Yang, freshly cast as Eddie in the ABC pilot ‘Far East Orlando’

Jeff Yang

Back in January, ABC put into development a pilot based on “Fresh Off the Boat,” the bestselling memoir by celebrity chef, restaurateur and raconteur Eddie Huang, whose hip-hop hustler attitude and brashly garrulous persona have transformed him into a social media superstar and an in-demand foodie icon: He’s been the host of the Cooking Channel’s “Cheap Eats” and an ongoing food travel show for Vice Media, and was even awarded a prestigious TED Fellowship (and got booted from the program after being caught ditching sessions, whereupon he publicly dismissed it as “Scientology science camp”).

The memoir focuses on Huang’s childhood with his two younger brothers, his hardcore mom and his Americana-obsessed dad. The adults have been cast for months — and quite perfectly, with Randall Park (“Veep”) taking on the affable role of Mr. Huang and Constance Wu playing his tough as nails but hilariously culture-shocked wife. But the production had been stuck on the pivotal role of Eddie himself…until now.

So here’s where I drop the biggest “disclosure line” of my career. After a long and crazy casting process, my son, 10-year-old Hudson Yang, has been cast as young Eddie:

“Hudson Yang will play EDDIE, a well-meaning, likable kid, and a recent transplant from Washington, D.C., now living in homogenized, all-white Orlando, Florida, where his dad is opening a restaurant. He’s clearly not happy about being uprooted in the middle of the school year, but is trying his best to fit in, make friends and be accepted. So far, it’s not exactly working. A first-generation American, Eddie embodies that transition between the old school traditions of his parents and the new school world of strip malls and Air Jordans. A big hip-hop fan, he identifies with the outsider nature of the music and uses it as an anthem in his everyday life. The arc of the series is about Eddie finding his niche in this new place.”

And so here we are. It’s incredibly weird to be in the position of covering the production of a show whose lead is my own beloved flesh and blood. But it’s also incredibly exciting. I’ve read the pilot script — if it makes it to the airwaves, it’ll be a game-changer for Asian Americans on screen.

Hudson Yang

Jeff Yang

The show, now tentatively (but hopefully not permanently) titled “Far East Orlando,” has fantastic talent behind the scenes: Executive producers Melvin Mar, Jake Kasdan (“New Girl”) and red-hot writer Nahnatchka Khan, who penned the pilot. (Khan, who created the underrated “Don’t Trust the B… in Apartment 23,” has another pilot in development with Fox, “Fatrick,” about a heartbreaker who secretly grew up as a chubby, bullied kid. There seems to be a consistent theme going on here.)

But the biggest asset the production may have is the real-life Eddie Huang himself, both because of his outsized personal brand — Huang is intent on become the master of all media, and I wouldn’t bet against him — and because of his commitment to authenticity.

In Huang’s view, the show is fundamentally about living with the “duality [of] Chinese life at home and the outside American world,” about encountering the kind of junior-grade racism that causes that schism to implode, and about turning for sustenance to things that offer the opportunity to both escape from grim reality and belong to something bigger.

“When we find [young Eddie] in the show, he isn’t hardened by Orlando’s particular brand of ignorance yet,” says Huang. “That’s what changes him. Then hip hop becomes this thing that sticks out as real — it’s the only thing in his life, besides basketball and family. The story is really a romance in a way, where the kid learns to love hip hop and in turn, to love America.”

Huang says that he and the producers were looking for a kid who was “irreverent” but also a normal, everyday kid.

“Hudson had a natural kind of orneriness to him,” laughs Huang. “He didn’t seem to care [about getting the role]. The other kids were way too excited to be there. Hudson is comfortable in his own skin, and he’s not overeager to please. That’s rare in a 12 year old. And he also has these mannerisms you just can’t teach.”

Well, I certainly didn’t teach them to him. But it’ll be fascinating to watch from the inside as the show develops, and I look forward to eventually giving the Speakeasy community a real and candid look behind the scenes of a pilot in production.

Meanwhile, I guess I have to start get used to being introduced to people as “Hudson’s dad.”